Michael Gordon (film director)

For other people of the same name, see Michael Gordon (disambiguation).

Michael Gordon
Born	September 6, 1909(1909-09-06) Baltimore, Maryland
Died	April 29, 1993(1993-04-29) (aged 83) Century City, California
Spouse	? Cohn

Michael Gordon (September 6, 1909 – April 29, 1993) was an American stage actor and stage and film director.

Life and career

Gordon was born in Baltimore and raised in a middle class Jewish community.^[1] He was a member of the Group Theatre (1935–1940), and was blacklisted as a Communist in the days of McCarthyism.^[2] He later joined the faculty of the UCLA Theatre Arts Department. Gordon was the maternal grandfather of actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt.^[3] Gordon summered at Pine Brook Country Club in Nichols, Connecticut. Pinebrook is best known for becoming the summer home of the Group Theatre. Some of the other artists who summered there were: Elia Kazan, Harry Morgan, John Garfield, Lee J. Cobb, Will Geer, Clifford Odets, Howard Da Silva and Irwin Shaw.^[4][5]

Because of his being blacklisted, Gordon's Hollywood career falls into two phases. In 1940, he started as a dialogue director and went on to direct B-movies. In the late 1940s, he distinguished himself by directing not just some action movies but also melodramas and films noir. He also directed the 1950 film Cyrano de Bergerac, for which José Ferrer won a Best Actor Academy Award. After his blacklisting, he was forced to stop directing films temporarily, but was called back to Hollywood at the end of the 1950s by producer Ross Hunter, who wanted him to direct Pillow Talk, a vehicle for Doris Day and Rock Hudson. Subsequently, Gordon's second creative phase was concerned with light-hearted comedy films.

Filmography as director

• Crime Doctor (1943)
• The Web (1947)
• Another Part of the Forest (1948)
• An Act of Murder (1948)
• The Lady Gambles (1949)
• Once More, My Darling (1949)
• Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
• I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1951)
• The Secret of Convict Lake (1951)
• Wherever She Goes (1951)
• Pillow Talk (1959)
• Portrait in Black (1960)
• Boys' Night Out (1962)
• Move Over, Darling (1963)
• For Love or Money (1963)
• A Very Special Favor (1965)
• Texas Across the River (1966)

References

1. ^ Davis, Ronald L. (2005). Just making movies: company directors on the studio system. Univ. Press of Mississippi. pp. 104. ISBN1578066913. 
2. ^ Honan, William H. (May 4, 1993). "Michael Gordon, Comic Director On Stage and Screen, Dies at 83". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/04/obituaries/michael-gordon-comic-director-on-stage-and-screen-dies-at-83.html. Retrieved May 12, 2010. 
3. ^ Lidz, Frank (2007-03-25). "From Alien Boy to Growing Star in the Indie Universe". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/movies/25lidz.html?_r=1&ref=movies&oref=slogin. Retrieved 2007-03-26. 
4. ^ Pinewood Lake website retrieved on 2010-09-10
5. ^ Images of America, Trumbull Historical Society, 1997, p. 123

External links

• Michael Gordon at the Internet Movie Database
• Michael Gordon at Find a Grave

Persondata
Name	Gordon, Michael
Alternative names
Short description	Actor, director
Date of birth	September 6, 1909
Place of birth	Baltimore, Maryland
Date of death	April 29, 1993
Place of death	Century City, California